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Description

We present two studies of online ephemerality and
anonymity based on the popular discussion board /b/
at 4chan.org: a website with over 7 million users that
plays an influential role in Internet culture. Although researchers
and practitioners often assume that user identity
and data permanence are central tools in the design
of online communities, we explore how /b/ succeeds despite
being almost entirely anonymous and extremely
ephemeral. We begin by describing /b/ and performing
a content analysis that suggests the community is dominated
by playful exchanges of images and links. Our
first study uses a large dataset of more than five million
posts to quantify ephemerality in /b/. We find that most
threads spend just five seconds on the first page and less
than five minutes on the site before expiring. Our second
study is an analysis of identity signals on 4chan,
finding that over 90% of posts are made by fully anonymous
users, with other identity signals adopted and discarded
at will. We describe alternative mechanisms that
/b/ participants use to establish status and frame their
interactions.

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Reviews and comments:

Breaking 1 and 2 and teaching newfags how to 4chan - expect pizzas and traps.Also, google Temporary Autonomous Zone and be surprised how the ephemerality of /b/ has been predicted in the beginning of the 90's by an anarchist.